Late last month I sat down and read the best little book! Miek Wiking’s book The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well has become a bestseller all over the world and I can see why. He has a way of bringing you back to earth and focusing you on what’s important in your daily life.

Many people have heard about Hygge (pronounced “hoo-gah”) and relate it to cosy homes, candles, cups of hot chocolate, etc. They are right – all of those things are hyygelit and related to winter. So, can you still enjoy hygge the rest of the year? Yes, you can.

Spring has definitely sprung where I live. So bringing hygge into spring means decluttering your home, bringing in some fresh flowers, having a picnic on a warm day (preferably with friends!), and getting some fresh candles with a springtime fragrance.

One additional thing to do to make your spring hyggelit is read this book if you haven’t yet. It has a way of changing the way you look at your life and changing how you set your priorities. So read it and get started on that emergency hyyge kit!

Book Details: Published by William Morrow (January 17, 2017), 240 Pages, ISBN: 978-0062658807.

Remodelista has a fascinating post today about a company named Beggars’ Velvet. For booklovers the term beggars’ velvet is interesting in and of itself and is defined as “the downy particles that accumulate under furniture from the negligence of housemaids. Otherwise called slut’s wool.”

Television really seems to be having a golden age right now. A few years ago, I had completely given up on television, but with the many great dramas out there now it seems I spend quite a few hours each week watching the tube!

One show I have really enjoyed isThe Young Pope. Jude Law is pleasing on the eyes and the cinematography is worth it all by itself. The music is pretty good as well. Paste Magazine posted a list of ten books to read before (or after) you watch The Young Pope. It really is a great list – every one of the books made it onto my personal “To-read” list. Now if I can just quit watching television long enough to read them.

On Goodreads, my “To-read” list has 1,237 books. I already own a few of these books (but nowhere near the entire list!) and in my remaining years, I can never hope to read all of the books on the list. Yet since January, five new books have made their way into my home. Why? Because if there is one thing I cannot resist, it is a book I want to read.

Lorraine Berry wrote an interesting essay on the history of compulsive book buying which posted to The Guardian in January. Read the entire essay. It is wonderfully written, but when you reach the end make sure you savor the last sentence. Berry’s essay only fuels a bibliomaniac’s excitement and interest in acquiring more books and that ending justifies your compulsion.

Business Insider published an article this morning on Amazon’s best book picks for the month of February. Some of the books that had already made it to my “To-read” list were also on Amazon’s list — Paul Auster’s novel 4 3 2 1 and Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. I’ve never read a book by either author, but both have been on my radar for some time. If you are a Book of the Month Club member, you may want to chose Pachinko, an epic novel that follows several generations of a Korean family.

It took me months to read this book and the problem started right at the beginning. The horror for me began with the euthanasia of a cat in the beginning of the book and I just found it too much to read. Ms. Fink won a Pulitzer Prize for her work on reporting the crisis at Memorial Medical Center when Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005 and deservedly so, but this crisis made for a slow and arduous read for me. This book is not for the faint of heart.

Ms. Fink’s book begins with an account of the preparations at Memorial Medical Center begins as Hurricane Katrina approaches New Orleans. Little did the staff, patients and families know that weathering the storm was only the beginning of a crisis that would last several days and ultimately result in 45 dead.

The book recounts the storm, its aftermath and the investigation into the events and deaths at Memorial Medical Center. Fink forces readers to consider what is right and what is wrong in times of crisis, to examine how we would behave if put in the same or similar circumstances, and perhaps most importantly what is the role of government (local, state, and federal) versus the role of the individual in ensuring their own survival.

Five Days at Memorial is a thought-provoking and difficult read.

Disclaimer: I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Although I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions, I have resolved to read more in 2017. Last year was a bust for me. Only twelve books made it on my “Read” list. This is probably a personal low for me, so you can understand why this year I might resolve to read more. So far it is working out well. Three books have made it to my “Read” list — at this rate I am well ahead of 2016.

Bustle posted an article yesterday entitled “5 Ways To Read More Intentionally in 2017.” One of the more interesting ways was to keep track of the year’s book releases with a weekly calendar. The Booklover will explore this option and try to help its readers keep track of book releases in 2017. Watch for a new feature on this Website!

One of my favorite ways to read more is to always carry a book with me. This is easy if you read on a smartphone, but if like me you prefer a paper book, it is one more thing to carry. It is so worth it though! With this habit of many years, I find that my list of book “To-read” gets whittled down (only temporarily until something new is added!) and my “Read” list gets longer.